Method, system, and computer program product for searching documents in a computer network

ABSTRACT

A system, method, and computer program product for accessing web pages on a network are provided. In use, different users are provided access to a plurality of sections of a document selected by the different users based on a community value for at least one community dimension assigned to each section of document selected by the different users. In particular, a user is conditionally provided access to a section of a document selected by the user, based on a comparison of a user value indicating a community with which the user is associated to the community value for the at least one community dimension assigned to the section of the document selected by the user.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/516,167 filed Sep. 5, 2006, which, in turn, is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 09/576,946 filed May 22, 2000 which was issued U.S.Pat. No. 7,130,879 on Oct. 31, 2006 which, in turn, claims priority fromProvisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/148,029 filed on Aug. 10,1999, entitled “System for Publishing, Organizing, Accessing andDistributing Information in a Computer Network,” which is herebyincorporated by reference as if set forth in full in this document.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure recited in the specification containsmaterial which is subject to copyright protection. Specifically, aMicrofiche Appendix in accordance with 37 CFR Section 1.96 is includedthat lists source code instructions for a process by which the presentinvention is practiced in a computer system. The Microfiche Appendixcomprises 16 sheets of microfiche containing 1458 pages of source code.The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction ofthe specification as filed in the Patent and Trademark Office. Otherwiseall copyright rights are reserved.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates in general to the transfer of data incomputer 25 networks and more specifically to a system for publishing,organizing, accessing and distributing information in a computernetwork.

Accessing information, and publishing information for others to accessor obtain, are important features of computer networks. However,although the trend is to make information access and publishing easy forusers of computers and computer networks, many of the mechanismsavailable are not easy for an average user to master. For example,publishing a web document not only requires a user to have someknowledge about where to publish, and to what audience to publish, butthe user may have to publish the document to several “sites” orlocations to make the document readily available to a desired number ofusers. This is the case, for example, when a company uses the company'snetwork, or intranet, that has different web sites associated withdifferent departments, regions, etc.

The lack of structure or organization of web pages, and documents, onnetworks can be both good and bad. Lack of structure can allow easypublishing of documents without placing a burden on the publisher tocomply with a predefined organization. This also lets each web sitedeveloper, online business, database, etc., to create a customizedorganization that is best suited to the specific type of information.However, lack of structure and organization also creates difficultiesfor a user of the network to efficiently search for documents. Often auser has to perform many searches and access different websites andutilities to look for the document. This involves much typing and mouse(or other user input device) manipulation, is time-consuming and can befrustrating and counter-productive.

An analogy can be made to a newspaper which has an effective andwell-known organization. A reader of the newspaper can quickly obtaininformation from the newspaper by going to a subject section such as“Business,” “Sports,” “Travel,” etc. The newspaper also provides anindex or table of contents. Articles are organized in order ofimportance with “links” to other sections of related news, such as thecontinuing text of an article. However, to achieve this level oforganization means that considerable time must be spent on editing, pagelayout, paste-up, etc. Also, writers, editors, and other people mustwork in a concerted effort to produce the organized information. Theapproach of computer networks has been to allow each writer/publisher tothrow an article into a haphazard network “bin” and to rely on looseorganization mechanisms such as keyword searching, folder organization,hyperlink organization or criteria organization.

An example of a web site structure that a typical company might provideon its internal intranet is to have different web sites for functions,or departments, such as “Human Resources,” “Marketing,” and “Finance.”If the company is large, there may be different regional offices, eachhaving these functions. If, for example, the company has offices atlocations in the U.S., Europe and Asia, this amounts to 9 differentintranet sites for information. Also, there will typically also be amain site for each regional office, a main site for each department ororganization, and a main site for the overall company.

Thus, we find 16 possible sites in all for the example discussed above.The typical organization for documents associated with these sites is tohave the documents pointed at by links. The links can be organized intocategories at each site's web page. Not only does this make publishinginformation extremely difficult when it is desired to mike informationavailable to more than one site; but any person interested in searchingand obtaining information may have to visit several sites. Also, thetask of publishing documents to the various intranet sites is usuallyhandled by a different person than the writer/publisher. Not only canthis become a huge task, given the number of documents and sites, butmistakes in classification are likely.

Some traditional methods for accessing documents in computer networksinclude keyword searching. This allows a user to make a relational querysuch as “movie review.” The search will return documents that includethe term “movie review” somewhere in the document. The documents can beat any number of sites. A search can be further narrowed by for example,including a relational term such as “AND” and the name of a moviereviewer. Also, a specific date, or period of time, can be specified.However, because of the huge volume of information on most intranets(and certainly the worldwide Internet) the number of documents thatmatch basic keyword searches is very large. Unless the user is veryfamiliar with the terminology, and type, of documents relating to thesubject in which the user is interested, the user's keyword search willmost likely turn up many documents in which the user is not interested.These must be further filtered by refining the query until the properdocuments are identified. With this approach it is often impossible toobtain a list of only relevant documents in which the searcher isinterested. The scope of the keyword search can not be set by the userbut is determined by the entity running the search engine and compilingthe search engine database.

Besides the large volume of information, another difficulty in obtainingdesired documents is that documents are created and “published” to thenetworks with few, or no, restrictions as to their form andorganization. In other words, a web page can be created and published bya user that includes text, images, etc. with an arbitrary organization.A document might or might not have a title, author's name, publicationdate, etc. The text of a document can be arranged in columns,paragraphs, one-liner separated by images or graphics, etc. Often adocument may not have any short identifying features, or any way to tellwhere one field, such as the subject of the document, begins and ends sothat the subject may be indistinguishable from the body of the documentat least insofar as a keyword search is concerned.

One approach to overcome some of these problems is to hand-annotatedocuments found on networks. Typically, this is done after documentcreation (sometimes long after document creation) by a person who wasinvolved in the creation of a document, web page, etc. Not only doesthis require substantial amounts of manual labor and time by personshaving some skill and knowledge in the area to which the documentsrelates, but, by attempting to organize and summarize aspects of thedocument, mistakes can be introduced, thereby compromising the degree ofaccurate, searchable information.

Another approach is to use “folders” or sub-directories in programs suchas email programs or web browsers. However, organizing information inthis way is usually done manually by the viewer of the information(i.e., the email or web documents). There is no provision for publishingto a user's private organization as these folders are hidden frompublishers. Where a public organizational hierarchy is implemented withfolders, such a hierarchy often becomes large and complex, requiringmuch time to navigate. Also, this approach does not provide flexiblesecurity or access control.

Some web sites, such as www.yahoo.com, accumulate information such asdocuments, web pages, etc., from various sources and categorize,summarize and annotate the documents. This multicriteria organizationdefines categories which are presented to a user searching the Internetas a hierarchy of web pages. Each successive web page in the hierarchy(i.e., web pages progressively lower in the hierarchy) contain a newsub-category of selections that further narrow the category. At somepoint, the user decides that the category is the one desired and clicksa control. A collection of information that fits the category is thenpresented to the user.

However, this approach often requires that documents be interpreted andclassified by a person other than the author so that errors can beintroduced. Also, a considerable amount of work is required to do theclassifying, write an abstract, etc. Another drawback is that thenavigation through web pages can be slow. Also, a user does not have anawareness of the overall classification scheme being used. In otherwords, the user does not know how many sub-category levels there are inthe hierarchy, or what types of classifications are used, until the userhas done a substantial amount of investigating into the hierarchy “tree”classes.

Still other drawbacks of the prior art include the inability to index toindividual pages, sections, or portions of a document. This means thattext that would otherwise be maintained as a single document must bebroken into several documents if it is desired to only allow certaingroups to have access to different portions of the original text.Current network organizations do not provide a very flexible securityand access system. Usually a website is restricted to user's with acertain account or password. Each user wishing to access the site, andall of the site's documents must enter the password. The use ofpasswords is difficult to maintain since accounts must be set-up, user'scan forget the passwords, etc. Also, the granularity of passwordprotection is very coarse as an entire website is usually either open orclosed to a particular user.

Thus, it is desirable to provide a computer network-based system thatovercomes some or all of the problems in the prior art and provides anefficient system for publishing, organizing, accessing and distributinginformation in a computer network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention allows a user to filter and view documentsprovided over a network. The documents are filtered based on categories.A category selector is a user interface tool that allows the user toselect multiple values to define a category. For example, values can beused to specify geographic location, corporate department, employeeclassification, time period, etc. Each category includes one or morevalues. For example, in the “Geographic Location” type of value, valuescan be “Worldwide,” “Europe,” “France,” etc. Values for “CorporateDepartment” can include, e.g., “Human Resources,” “Marketing,” etc.Values for “Employee Classification” can include “All Employees,”“Mid-Level Managers,” “Staff,” etc.

Using the four value types discussed above, a category might be “Europe;Human Resources; All Employees; Before 1999.” Thus, the category definesa segment, or filter, of documents or information within the totaldocuments or information available in a network. The total documents orinformation available can be considered those documents within acompany's intranet, or the total of the documents available on theInternet, world wide web, individual web site, or other computer networkor database.

Note that, as discussed below, two different users who have selected thesame category may not see the same documents, or document sections. Thisis because the present invention takes into account the community towhich each user is assigned. So, for example, a user who has an HRdimension to their assigned community can be restricted from seeingdocuments that are designated for accounting. The same type ofrestrictions can apply to sections, or portions, of documents.

A preferred embodiment of the invention generates a list of documentsthat satisfy the category definition. The category definition isselectable by a user of the system using a “selector” tool in a userinterface. The selector tool in the preferred embodiment presents a listof values for each value type in the category. Thus, the user canchoose, in a menu-like style, values to create a category definition.Once the category definition is set, only those documents which meet thedefinition are shown to the user. This acts to greatly simplify theuser's search through many sites, servers, libraries, etc. on thenetwork. Keyword searching can also be used in conjunction with categoryselection to provide a powerful search.

The list of documents that meet the category can be organized asdiscrete documents, or can be organized as collections of documenttypes. In other words, documents can be organized into document typessuch as “career,” “demo,” “legal,” “policies,” etc. Within each of thesedocument types can be discrete document names, sub-types, etc. Thecollection of types, and the types' documents and sub-types, that arereturned for a given category is referred to as a “theme.” Categoriesare referred to as “communities,” or “slices.” Type values are referredto as “dimensions.” Communities, dimensions, dimension values, andthemes can be set by a system administrator. Users have greatflexibility in using themes and have some ability to define new themes.A given theme can be associated with more than one slice. Users whopublish documents to the network are associated with a slice, orcommunity. The default for a published document is to be associated witha slice of the publishing user. However, the user can choose toassociate a document with a different slice, or slices. Or, the systemadministrator can change the association of the document.

In a preferred embodiment, the invention provides a method for accessingweb pages on a network, wherein the network is coupled to a servercomputer and a user computer operated by a user, the user computerincluding a user input device and a display device, the methodcomprising transferring a portion of a web page from the server computerto the display device over the network, wherein the portion of a webpage includes a selector allowing the user to select one or more of thefollowing categories: geographic location, corporate department,employee classification, time period; detecting a user's choice byreceiving information generated in response to signals from the userinput device to indicate the one or more categories chosen by the user;identifying one or more web pages associated with information that meetsthe chosen categories; and sending information about the identified webpages to the user computer.

A method for accessing web pages on a network is disclosed. The networkis coupled to a server computer and a user computer operated by a user.The user computer includes a user input device and a display device. Themethod comprises transferring a portion of a web page from the servercomputer to the display device over the network. The portion of the webpage includes a selector allowing the user to concurrently selectrespective values for two or more dimensions. A user's choice isdetected by receiving information generated in response to signals fromthe user input device to indicate the value selected for each dimensionchosen by the user. A user's choice is detected by receiving informationgenerated in response to signals from the user input device to indicatea filtering methodology selected by the user for each dimension chosenby the user. The filtering methodology is selected by the user from aplurality of filtering methodologies. One or more web pages associatedwith information that meets all the respective values for the chosendimensions are identified in accordance with the corresponding filteringmethodologies selected for the chosen dimensions. Information about theidentified web pages is sent to the user computer. At least one of theidentified web pages includes a plurality of sections. A user's choiceis then detected by receiving information generated in response tosignals from the user input device indicating a web page selected by theuser from the identified web pages. Only sections of the web pageselected by the user that meet the respective values for the chosendimensions and the corresponding filtering methodologies are sent to theuser computer. Signals provided by a document creator are accepted viathe user input device to create a document, the document having aplurality of sections. Signals provided by the document creator areaccepted via the user input device to assign a value for at least onedimension to each section of the document. A first section of thedocument and a second section of the document are associated withdifferent values for the same dimension. The user is given access to theplurality of sections of the document based on the values assigned tothe corresponding dimensions by the document creator.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a selector tool of the present invention;

FIG. 2A illustrates strict filtering;

FIG. 2B illustrates ascending filtering;

FIG. 2C illustrates descending filtering;

FIG. 2D illustrates the use of theme headings;

FIG. 2E illustrates a user interface mechanism for defining themes;

FIG. 2F shows a text search box used in conjunction with a sliceselector tool;

FIGS. 3A-B illustrate a model chart for basic data objects of thepreferred embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates the publishing aspect of one preferred embodiment;and

FIG. 5 illustrates a document with multiple sections having differentdimension values.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is to be embodied in a suite of software productscreated and distributed by Instranet, Inc., of Palo Alto, Calif. Variousaspects of the invention are discussed below, followed by a descriptionof hardware suitable for use with the invention.

Obtaining Documents

FIG. 1 shows screen display 100 of the user interface of the presentinvention.

In FIG. 1, selector 110 is a set of four pull-down menus or lists. Eachof pull-down menu corresponds to one “dimension” used to define the“slice,” or “community.” Each of pull-down menus 102, 104, 106 and 108correspond, respectively, to the following dimensions: geographiclocation, corporate department, employee classification, time period.

Screen 100 shows the display after the user has set values for each ofthe dimensions as: “U.S.”; Human Resources; All Employees; “AllPeriods.” Thus, the slice, or community defined in selector 110 ofscreen display 100 is for documents associated with any employees,published at any time, in the companies U.S. offices relating to thecompany's Human Resources Department.

A list of the results of specifying the slice shown in FIG. 1 is to theleft of the web-page at 120 of FIG. 1. This list shows two document typeheadings as “Career and Policies.” Within the career heading, are threedocuments identified as “Employment Philosophy,” “Referral Program,” and“Training & Development.” Under the “Policies” heading, are “EmploymentGuidelines” and “Policies.” The list of documents at 120 is retrievedafter the server automatically executes database search instructionsaccording to the defined slice. The server begins executing the databasesearch based on the defined slice when the user clicks on the “Find”icon at 122.

The user can view a selected document by clicking on the document namein the list at 120. The document is shown in the document viewing areaat 130 of FIG. 1, below selector 110 and to the right of list 120.

In addition to document titles, uniform resource locators (URLs) can beshown in the list. By clicking on a URL, the user is taken to thecorresponding web site, web page or other resource associated with theclicked URL.

Table I shows examples of possible values for dimensions.

In Table I, values for each of the dimensions used in selector 110 ofFIG. 1 are as follows: the dimension “Geographic Location” can havevalues such as “Worldwide,” “Asia,” “Europe,” “France,” “U.K.,”“America,” and “U.S.” Naturally, any number of geographic locations canbe specified and placed into the list. The preferred embodiment allowsvalues for dimensions to be organized in a hierarchy. As shown in TableI, the value “Worldwide” includes values encompassed by it. These“child” values (to which the value “Worldwide” is the parent) areindicated by progressively indenting to the right. Thus, “Asia,”“Europe,” and “America” are each given one level of indenting to theright. Under the “Europe” value are associated child values of “France”and “U.K.” Under the value of “America” is the value “U.S.”

TABLE I Geographic Corporate Location Department Employee ClassificationTime Period Worldwide All Departments All employees All Periods AsiaHuman Resources Staff Today Europe Corporate Engineers This Week FranceMarketing Mid Level Managers Last Week U.K. Engineering Senior ManagersThis Month America Accounting Executives U.S. Board of Directors

Values for the other dimensions are shown in Table I. Note that otherselections and arrangements of dimensions, and dimension values, arepossible. In the preferred embodiment, a system administrator is the onethat sets up the dimensions, and dimension values, that can be used byusers to define communities or slices. Thus, the system administrator isgiven control over the highest level of organization of documents in thenetwork. Users use the dimensions, and dimension values to form slicesto filter information and to obtain lists of documents.

Other arrangements for implementing selector 110 of FIG. 1 are possible.That is, each dimension need not be a pull-down list of items. Forexample, the complete lists of all values for dimensions can beconstantly displayed. The use of pull-down menus however, makes selector110 more compact. Thus, leaving more room for, e.g., displaying the textof document, or for other purposes. For example, an arbitrary text entrycan be allowed so that a list is not even provided. This may be useful,especially for the “Time Period” dimension so as to allow a user to typein dates and times. The time period can also be set graphically withsliders, clocks and calendars, etc.

Another example of a slice using the dimensions and dimension valueshown in Table 1 is the following: the slice “Europe”; “Marketing”;“Staff”; “This Week”; results in a listing of all documents generated inthe company's offices in Europe concerning the staff in the MarketingDepartment for the present week that the document request based on theslice is being made.

Note that, once a slide is set, all of the user's subsequent browsingtakes place within that slice. In other words, the user will not beshown, in the list at 120 of FIG. 1, documents or document headings, notassociated with the selected slide. Themes which define which documentheadings, and documents, are shown in association with the slice arediscussed in more detail below.

Thus, the user is able to “filter” documents in a way that makes sensewithin a corporate structure. In the preferred embodiment, filtering canbe at different levels. The possible levels are “Strict” and“Descending”. Other embodiments can include “ascending” filtering whichis also discussed below.

Strict filtering means that only the documents that are associated withthe given slice are identified to the user. FIG. 2A illustrates theresults of a search using strict filtering with the dimensions andpossible dimension values shown in Table I. In FIG. 2A, only 4 documentsin 2 categories meet the community “WorldWide; Marketing; All Employees;All Periods” with strict filtering.

In ascending filtering, all documents are listed that are associatedwith the selected slice, or which are associated with other slices thatmatch the selected slice but that have one or more dimension values thatare a parent-value of the selected slice's dimension values. Forexample, using the geographic location dimension, the value “WorldWide”is a parent-value of the value “Europe”. Similarly, the value “Europe”is a parent-value of the value “France”. Thus, if the user is filteringthe slice shown in FIG. 1 of “U.S.; Human Resources; All Employees; AllPeriods” all documents associated with the following slices will also bereturned: “America; Human Resources; All Employees; All Periods”, and“World-wide; Human Resources; All Employees; All Periods”.

A preferred embodiment of the invention uses only strict and descendingfiltering. Other embodiments can allow the user to select the type offiltering from among one or more of the three types. Other types offiltering are possible.

FIG. 2B shows an example of the list of documents returned withascending filtering used on the community “Europe; Sales; All Employees;All Periods”. Documents are returned that are associated with both theEuropean and worldwide sales reports.

“Descending” filtering is similar to “Ascending” filtering, but proceedsin the opposite direction with respect to dimension values. In“Descending” filtering, all documents associated with the selectedslice, and slices having the same dimension values as the selected sliceand including slices having a dimension value that is the child-value ofone or more of the selected slices dimension values, are provided to theuser. For example, in the case where the slice specified is the“America; Human Resources; All Employees; All Periods” then documentsassociated with that slice and also the slice “U.S.; Human Resources;All Employees; All Periods” are also returned to the user.

FIG. 2C illustrates descending filtering. FIG. 2C shows the resultsreturned with the community “WorldWide; Human Resources; All Employees;All Periods”. Note that many documents are identified which correspondto all geographic regions for Human Resources departments.

A refinement to the selector tool is shown in FIG. 2F.

In FIG. 2F, selector 140 includes dimensions similar to selector 110 ofFIG. 1, but also includes the added dimension of “Hobbies.” Further,text entry window 142 is provided, along with search button 144. The useof the text entry window and search button allows a user to perform akeyword search within the defined slice. All documents within the slicefiltering which also include the text phase or keyword specified in thetext entry window will then be displayed to the user. Note thatrefinements are possible, such as allowing relational expressions withinthe text entry window.

Thus, slices are used to provide a filtering function across manydocuments in one or more web sites, servers, databases, etc. The sliceis easily chosen by the user with the selector tool described above.Different filtering modes can be employed.

An additional feature of the invention allows users to predefine slicesthat can be recalled later. Such pre-defined slices are referred to as“channels.” Thus, a user can select a slice such as “U.S.; HumanResources; All Employees; All Periods” and select a label to associatewith the slice, such as All “US HR.” Once designated as a channel, ahyperlink named “All US HR” appears on the user's display. This can beon a web page or part of a persistent toolbar, sidebar, etc. A user canthen conveniently invoke the slice by merely clicking on the channel.The user can define multiple channels in this manner.

Predefined channels, or lists of channels, can be prepared and sent toother users. For example, where the channels are listed on web page, theweb page can be emailed to one or more other users. By opening theemailed web page and clicking on the desired channel, the sliceassociated with that channel becomes the user's selected slice.

Publishing

Users can publish documents to the system. The publishing, andaccessing, of documents is best understood using the two concepts of“coordinate” location and “scope” of visibility.

A coordinate is the specific set of dimension values associated with auser or document (or document section). Another way to think of acoordinate is as the community to which a user or document isassociated. For example, a user can belong to the “France”; “HumanResources” community. Typically, a document published by a user is giventhe same coordinate, or community, as the publishing user. A user with acoordinate of “France”; “Human Resources” would publish to thatcoordinate. However, the system can be set up by the systemadministrator so that other coordinates are used as the defaultcoordinates for publishing for any given user, department, geographicregion, community, etc.

The user can also be permitted to publish the document to multiplecoordinates. One way to do this is to allow a user to override thedefault settings by using selector 110 of FIG. 1 to create anassociation between the user's published document and any desiredcoordinate. The user publishes to a coordinate by having the documentdisplayed in document viewing area 130 and by clicking on the “Publish”icon 124. At the time of clicking on Publish icon 124, whatevercoordinate (i.e., set of dimension values) selected by selector 110 isassociated with the document. A user publishes to multiple coordinatesby repeatedly selecting the next coordinate to publish to and thenclicking on the “Publish” icon at 124 while the document to be publishedis displayed. Note that the search rules described above, for exampleascending filtering, permit users at different coordinates than adocuments published coordinate to view and access the document as longas the users are within the filtering rule. FIG. 4 illustrates thepublishing aspect of one preferred embodiment.

The notion of “scope” refers to the collection of all user coordinatesthat can view and access a document. This can be more than the users atthe document's published coordinate and at coordinates included withinthe filtering rules.

The system administrator can add coordinates to a document's (ordocument section's) scope. The system administrator can authorize, andexclude, users from accessing predetermined coordinates. This providessecurity and access controls based on any of the dimension values suchas geographic region, employee position, etc. The system administrator,or another user, can also exclude users belonging to certain coordinatesfrom viewing certain documents, or document portions. Thus, a document,or document portion, as explained below, can make use of its assignedcoordinates, within the system to establish the document's “scope ofvisibility” to users. Naturally, any schemes for permitting orrestricting documents, or document portions, from viewing can be used.For example, an access list of each specific community, or coordinate,that can view a document can be maintained. An exclusion list cansimilarly be maintained in tandem with the access list. Portions of adocument can each be associated with one or more coordinates which aredifferent from coordinates associated with other portions of the samedocument.

When a document is created, it is considered as a single section. Thisis referred to as the “Master Section.” In many situations, this is theonly section of the document and acts to associate the entire documentwith a coordinate or theme (discussed below). As the document iscreated, the document author can define document sections which can, inturn, be associated with different coordinates, themes and accessrequirements. For example, a document may include sales reports whichare excluded from all communities that do not include the “sales” or“executive” values. FIG. 5 illustrates a document with multiple sectionshaving different dimension values.

Sections of a document can include, or entirely be, executable code suchas Java, XML. Sections of a document can provide other mechanisms toinvoke streaming media information, or perform other tasks. Suchexecutable sections can be associated and restricted in the same way astext sections, described above. This allows greater flexibility,capability and control. For example, an executable section can cause avideo or ShockWave™ window to appear and begin playing. Java can be usedto have an embedded calculation box, spreadsheet, etc. appear in adocument. Such functionality can be excluded from users not associatedwith predetermined slices, or from users who do not wish to access thefunctionality. Other examples include a price list where the Europeanprices are only visible by people in European communities and where theU.S. prices are only visible by people in the U.S., etc.

Themes

One aspect of the invention uses “themes” to help organize thepresentation of information to a user, and to assist in publication ofinformation across communities. Themes function as category headings forgroups of documents which fall into the category.

FIG. 2D shows a portion of the user interface of the present inventionto illustrate theme headings. In FIG. 2D, theme headings are shown at150. Below each heading are document titles. The document titles areindented from their respective theme headings. Although not shown in theblack-and-white Figure, theme headings are red in the preferredembodiment. Theme headings function as standard category headings. Forexample, under the “Demo” theme heading, the documents “Our Products,”“Kit PreSales” and “Kit Sales” can be found. Although not shown,sub-themes can be used. For example, the “Demo” theme can have asub-theme of “Kits” under which the last two documents would be listed.

Unlike communities which serve to categorize, and distinguish, documentsaccording to company structure and timeframe; themes organize documentsby document subject or type. In other words, dimensions describe a groupof people, or community, while themes define content classification. Forexample, a theme can be documents related to employee “Stock Options.”Such a theme can be associated only with countries that allow ownershipof stock. In the example dimensions and values used so far, such a themewould be associated with the “U.S.” and “U.K.” values of the “GeographicRegion” dimension. A publisher can publish to this theme by selectingfrom a list of themes at the time of publishing. The published documentis automatically associated with the U.S. and U.K. values. The themeheading will only show up in communities that include the U.S. and U.K.values (assuming strict filtering), along with any documents associatedwith the theme. Users can use themes as part of a filter so that onlydocuments matching selected themes' subject categories (in addition tothe dimension values of the slice, or community) will be displayed.

In the preferred embodiment, a theme is selected for a document by usinga pull-down list such as that shown in FIG. 2E. The user associates atheme with a section by placing the cursor within the section (e.g., byclicking in a text region of the section) and by selecting the theme.Each user is assigned a default community to which the user belongs. Atheme for the document is assigned by placing the cursor in the MasterSection and selecting on the desired theme.

Hardware/Software Implementation

Various basic hardware suitable for use with the present invention maybe employed.

A computer system including display having display screen may beprovided. Cabinet may house standard computer components such as a diskdrive, CDROM drive, display adapter, network card, random access memory(RAM), central processing unit (CPU), and other components, subsystemsand devices. User input devices such as mouse having buttons, andkeyboard may also be provided. Other user input devices such as atrackball, touch-screen, digitizing tablet, etc. can be used. Ingeneral, the computer system is illustrative of but one type of computersystem, such as a desktop computer, suitable for use with the presentinvention. Computers can be configured with many different hardwarecomponents and can be made in many dimensions and styles (e.g., laptop,palmtop, pentop, server, workstation, mainframe). Any hardware platformsuitable for performing the processing described herein is suitable foruse with the present invention.

In another embodiment, subsystems that might typically be found in acomputer such as the aforementioned computer may also be provided.

For example, subsystems within a box are directly interfaced to internalbus. Such subsystems typically are contained within the computer systemsuch as within the aforementioned cabinet. Subsystems includeinput/output (I/O) controller, System Random Access Memory (RAM),Central Processing Unit (CPU), Display Adapter, Serial Port, Fixed Diskand Network Interface Adapter. The use of a bus allows each of thesubsystems to transfer data among the subsystems and, most importantly,with the CPU. External devices can communicate with the CPU or othersubsystems via the bus by interfacing with a subsystem on the bus.Monitor connects to the bus through Display Adapter. A relative pointingdevice (RPD) such as a mouse connects through Serial Port. Some devicessuch as Keyboard can communicate with the CPU by direct means withoutusing the main data bus as, for example, via an interrupt controller andassociated registers.

As with the external physical configuration described above, manysubsystem configurations are possible. The above described subsystem isillustrative of but one suitable configuration. Subsystems, componentsor devices other than those described above can be added. A suitablecomputer system can be achieved without using all of the subsystemsdescribed above. For example, a standalone computer need not be coupledto a network so Network Interface would not be required. Othersubsystems such as a CDROM drive: graphics accelerator, etc. can beincluded in the configuration without affecting the performance of thesystem of the present invention.

A typical network may also be provided.

For example, the network system includes several local networks coupledto the Internet. Although specific network protocols, physical layers,topologies, and other network properties are presented herein, thepresent invention is suitable for use with any network.

In one embodiment, computer USER1 is connected to Server1. Thisconnection can be by a network such as Ethernet, Asynchronous TransferMode, IEEE standard 1553 bus, modem connection, Universal Serial Bus,etc. The communication link need not be a wire but can be infrared,radio wave transmission, etc. Server1 is coupled to the Internet. TheInternet may include a collection of server routers. Note that the useof the Internet for distribution or communication of information is notstrictly necessary to practice the present invention but is merely usedto illustrate a preferred embodiment, below. Further, the use of servercomputers and the designation of server and client machines is notcrucial to an implementation of the present invention. USER1 Computercan be connected directly to the Internet. Server1's connection to theInternet is typically by a relatively high bandwidth transmission mediumsuch as a T1 or T3 line.

Similarly, other computers may utilize a local network at a differentlocation from USER1 computer. The computers are coupled to the Internetvia Server2. USER3 and Server3 represent yet a third installation.

Note that the concepts of “client” and “server,” as used in thisapplication and the industry, are very loosely defined and, in fact, arenot fixed with respect to machines or software processes executing onthe machines. Typically, a server is a machine or process that isproviding information to another machine or process, i.e., the “client,”that requests the information. In this respect, a computer or processcan be acting as a client at one point in time (because it is requestinginformation) and can be acting as a server at another point in time(because it is providing information). Some computers are consistentlyreferred to as “servers” because they usually act as a repository for alarge amount of information that is often requested. For example, aWorld Wide Web (WWW, or simply, “Web”) site is often hosted by a servercomputer with a large storage capacity, high-speed processor andInternet link having the ability to handle many high-bandwidthcommunication lines.

A server machine will most likely not be manually operated by a humanuser on a continual basis, but, instead, has software for constantly,and automatically, responding to information requests. On the otherhand, some machines, such as desktop computers, are typically thought ofas client machines because they are primarily used to obtain informationfrom the Internet for a user operating the machine.

Depending on the specific software executing at any point in time onthese machines, the machine may actually be performing the role of aclient or server, as the need may be. For example, a user's desktopcomputer can provide information to another desktop computer. Or aserver may directly communicate with another server computer. Sometimesthis is characterized as “peer-to-peer,” communication. Althoughprocesses of the present invention, and the hardware executing theprocesses, may be characterized by language common to a discussion ofthe Internet (e.g., “client,” “server,” “peer”) it should be apparentthat software of the present invention can execute on any type ofsuitable hardware including networks other than the Internet.

Although software of the present invention, may be presented as a singleentity, such software is readily able to be executed on multiplemachines. That is, there may be multiple instances of a given softwareprogram, a single program may be executing on two or more processors ina distributed processing environment, parts of a single program may beexecuting on different physical machines, etc. Further, two differentprograms, such as a client and server program, can be executing in asingle machine, or in different machines. A single program can beoperating as a client for one information transaction and as a serverfor a different information transaction.

FIGS. 3A-B shows a model chart for basic data objects of the presentinvention.

For example, FIG. 3A shows that a document object 200 includes a“BLOB_ID,” “DESCRIPTION,” “DOCUMENT_ID,” etc. The BLOB_ID, in turn,references a blob table that includes additional information and/orreferences to other objects. Naturally, any manner of suitable softwareimplementation can be employed that can use different, or varied,architectures of that of FIGS. 3A-B.

A preferred embodiment of the present invention operates on Microsoft NTor Unix platforms acting as servers. Client platforms can be anypersonal computer, consumer processing device, etc. The preferredembodiment uses Java for client-side processing and uses Oracle 8i forthe underlying database engine. Again, given the nature of computerprocessing, these specifics are merely one implementation of hardwareand software that can be used to implement the present invention.

Although the present invention has been discussed with respect tospecific embodiments, these embodiments are merely illustrative, and notrestrictive, of the invention. The scope of the invention is to bedetermined solely by the appended claims.

1. A method for searching documents in a computer network, the methodcomprising: defining a plurality of content dimensions, each of theplurality of content dimensions having one or more content dimensionvalues; maintaining a plurality of documents; assigning one or more ofthe content dimension values to each of the plurality of documents;storing the plurality of documents in a retrievable form; indicating theplurality of content dimensions to a user of a computer; accepting inputfrom the user of the computer specifying one or more of the contentdimension values associated with one or more of the content dimensions;identifying one or more of the documents that meet one or more of thecontent dimension values associated with one or more of the contentdimensions specified by the user of the computer; accepting input fromthe user of the computer selecting one of the documents from the one ormore identified documents; and identifying to the user of the computerthe one of the documents selected by the user; wherein different usersare provided access to a plurality of sections of the one of thedocuments selected by the different users based on a community value forat least one community dimension assigned to each section of the one ofthe documents selected by the different users by: identifying a firstuser value for at least one community dimension to which a first user isassociated, the first user value indicating a first community with whichthe first user is associated; for a first section of the one of thedocuments selected by the first user, comparing the first user value tothe community value for the at least one community dimension assigned tothe first section of the one of the documents selected by the firstuser; conditionally providing the first user access to the first sectionof the one of the documents selected by the first user, based on thecomparison of the first user value to the community value for the atleast one community dimension assigned to the first section of the oneof the documents selected by the first user; for a second section of theone of the documents selected by the first user, comparing the firstuser value to the community value for the at least one communitydimension assigned to the second section of the one of the documentsselected by the first user; conditionally providing the first useraccess to the second section of the one of the documents selected by thefirst user, based on the comparison of the first user value to thecommunity value for the at least one community dimension assigned to thesecond section of the one of the documents selected by the first user;identifying a second user value for at least one community dimension towhich a second user is associated, the second user value indicating asecond community with which the second user is associated; for the firstsection of the one of the documents selected by the second user,comparing the second user value to the community value for the at leastone community dimension assigned to the first section of the one of thedocuments selected by the second user; conditionally providing thesecond user access to the first section of the one of the documentsselected by the second user, based on the comparison of the second uservalue to the community value for the at least one community dimensionassigned to the first section of the one of the documents selected bythe second user; for the second section of the one of the documentsselected by the second user, comparing the second user value to thecommunity value for the at least one community dimension assigned to thesecond section of the one of the documents selected by the second user;and conditionally providing the second user access to the second sectionof the one of the documents selected by the second user, based on thecomparison of the second user value to the community value for the atleast one community dimension assigned to the second section of the oneof the documents selected by the second user.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the method is implemented using a plurality of instances of asoftware program.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofcontent dimensions and the content dimension values are defined by asystem administrator.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:accepting input from the first user specifying at least one theme; andfiltering the one or more documents identified according to the at leastone theme specified by the first user.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe identifying the one or more documents further comprises grouping thedocuments by theme.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofthe documents make up a face book.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein thefirst user is provided access to the first section of the one of thedocuments selected by the first user in response to a determination fromthe comparison that the first user value matches the value for the atleast one community dimension assigned to the first section of the oneof the documents selected by the first user.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the first user is denied access to the first section of the oneof the documents selected by the first user in response to adetermination from the comparison that the first user value does notmatch the value for the at least one community dimension assigned to thefirst section of the one of the documents selected by the first user. 9.The method of claim 1, wherein the first community to which the firstuser is associated is a community to which the first user is assigned.10. The method of claim 1, wherein for each section of the one of thedocuments selected by the user, a file creator selects the communityvalue for the at least one community dimension, such that the selectioncreates the assignment of the community value for the at least onecommunity dimension to the section of the one of the documents selectedby the user.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of thesections of the one of the documents selected by the user is assignedmultiple different sets of a community value for the at least onecommunity dimension.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein each of thesets of a community value for the at least one community dimensionindicates a different community.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein foreach section of the one of the documents, the community value for the atleast one community dimension assigned to the section of the one of thedocuments is specified for granting access to the section of the one ofthe documents to users associated with the community value.
 14. Themethod of claim 1, wherein for each section of the one of the documents,the community value for the at least one community dimension assigned tothe section of the one of the documents is specified for denying accessto the section of the one of the documents to users associated with thecommunity value.
 15. The method of claim 1, wherein the dimensionsinclude a geographic location category, a department category and a timeperiod category.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein a community towhich each section of the one of the documents is assigned categorizesthe section of the one of the documents according to a corporatestructure using the geographic location category and the departmentcategory, and further categorizes the section of the one of thedocuments according to a timeframe using the time period category. 17.The method of claim 1, wherein a community to which each section of theone of the documents selected by the first user is assigned and thefirst community to which the first user is associated are within acorporate structure.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein a community towhich each section of the one of the documents selected by the firstuser is assigned and the first community to which the first user isassociated includes a geographic location and a department.
 19. Themethod of claim 18, wherein the department includes a department of thecorporate structure to which each section of the one of the documentsconcerns.
 20. The method of claim 1, wherein the community value for theat least one community dimension assigned to each section of the one ofthe documents defines a publication date associated with the section ofthe one of the documents.
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein thecommunity to which each section of the one of the documents selected bythe first user is assigned and the first community to which the firstuser is associated each include a group of people.
 22. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising accepting signals provided by a file creatorvia a user input device to assign a theme to each section of the one ofthe documents, the theme associated with at least one of the communityvalues for the at least one community dimension assigned to each sectionof the one of the documents.
 23. The method of claim 22, wherein for thesection of the one of the documents associated with the theme, the atleast one of the community values associated with the theme isautomatically assigned to the section of the one of the documents basedon the assignment of the theme to the section of the one of thedocuments.
 24. A system for searching documents in a computer networkcomprising: a processor for: defining a plurality of content dimensions,each of the plurality of content dimensions having one or more contentdimension values; maintaining a plurality of documents; assigning one ormore of the content dimension values to each of the plurality ofdocuments; storing the plurality of documents in a retrievable form;indicating the plurality of content dimensions to a user of a computer;accepting input from the user of the computer specifying one or more ofthe content dimension values associated with one or more of the contentdimensions; identifying one or more of the documents that meet one ormore of the content dimension values associated with one or more of thecontent dimensions specified by the user of the computer; acceptinginput from the user of the computer selecting one of the documents fromthe one or more identified documents; and identifying to the user of thecomputer the one of the documents selected by the user; whereindifferent users are provided access to a plurality of sections of theone of the documents selected by the different users based on acommunity value for at least one community dimension assigned to eachsection of the one of the documents selected by the different users by:identifying a first user value for at least one community dimension towhich a first user is associated, the first user value indicating afirst community with which the first user is associated; for a firstsection of the one of the documents selected by the first user,comparing the first user value to the community value for the at leastone community dimension assigned to the first section of the one of thedocuments selected by the first user; conditionally providing the firstuser access to the first section of the one of the documents selected bythe first user, based on the comparison of the first user value to thecommunity value for the at least one community dimension assigned to thefirst section of the one of the documents selected by the first user;for a second section of the one of the documents selected by the firstuser, comparing the first user value to the community value for the atleast one community dimension assigned to the second section of the oneof the documents selected by the first user; conditionally providing thefirst user access to the second section of the one of the documentsselected by the first user, based on the comparison of the first uservalue to the community value for the at least one community dimensionassigned to the second section of the one of the documents selected bythe first user; identifying a second user value for at least onecommunity dimension to which a second user is associated, the seconduser value indicating a second community with which the second user isassociated; for the first section of the one of the documents selectedby the second user, comparing the second user value to the communityvalue for the at least one community dimension assigned to the firstsection of the one of the documents selected by the second user;conditionally providing the second user access to the first section ofthe one of the documents selected by the second user, based on thecomparison of the second user value to the community value for the atleast one community dimension assigned to the first section of the oneof the documents selected by the second user; for the second section ofthe one of the documents selected by the second user, comparing thesecond user value to the community value for the at least one communitydimension assigned to the second section of the one of the documentsselected by the second user; and conditionally providing the second useraccess to the second section of the one of the documents selected by thesecond user, based on the comparison of the second user value to thecommunity value for the at least one community dimension assigned to thesecond section of the one of the documents selected by the second user.25. The system of claim 24, wherein the system is implemented using aplurality of instances of a software program.
 26. The system of claim24, wherein the system is operable such that the plurality of contentdimensions and the content dimension values are defined by a systemadministrator.
 27. The system of claim 24, wherein the processor isfurther for: accepting input from the first user specifying at least onetheme; and filtering the one or more documents identified according tothe at least one theme specified by the first user.
 28. The system ofclaim 24, wherein the system is operable such that the identifying theone or more documents further comprises grouping the documents by theme.29. The system of claim 24, wherein the system is operable such that theplurality of the documents make up a face book.
 30. A computer programproduct, comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having acomputer readable program code embodied therein, the computer readableprogram code adapted to be executed to implement a method for searchingdocuments in a computer network, the method comprising: defining aplurality of content dimensions, each of the plurality of contentdimensions having one or more content dimension values; maintaining aplurality of documents; assigning one or more of the content dimensionvalues to each of the plurality of documents; storing the plurality ofdocuments in a retrievable form; indicating the plurality of contentdimensions to a user of a computer; accepting input from the user of thecomputer specifying one or more of the content dimension valuesassociated with one or more of the content dimensions; identifying oneor more of the documents that meet one or more of the content dimensionvalues associated with one or more of the content dimensions specifiedby the user of the computer; accepting input from the user of thecomputer selecting one of the documents from the one or more identifieddocuments; and identifying to the user of the computer the one of thedocuments selected by the user; wherein different users are providedaccess to a plurality of sections of the one of the documents selectedby the different users based on a community value for at least onecommunity dimension assigned to each section of the one of the documentsselected by the different users by: identifying a first user value forat least one community dimension to which a first user is associated,the first user value indicating a first community with which the firstuser is associated; for a first section of the one of the documentselected by the first user, comparing the first user value to thecommunity value for the at least one community dimension assigned to thefirst section of the one of the documents selected by the first user;conditionally providing the first user access to the first section ofthe one of the documents selected by the first user, based on thecomparison of the first user value to the community value for the atleast one community dimension assigned to the first section of the oneof the documents selected by the first user; for a second section of theone of the documents selected by the first user, comparing the firstuser value to the community value for the at least one communitydimension assigned to the second section of the one of the documentsselected by the first user; conditionally providing the first useraccess to the second section of the one of the documents selected by thefirst user, based on the comparison of the first user value to thecommunity value for the at least one community dimension assigned to thesecond section of the one of the documents selected by the first user;identifying a second user value for at least one community dimension towhich a second user is associated, the second user value indicating asecond community with which the second user is associated; for the firstsection of the one of the documents selected by the second user,comparing the second user value to the community value for the at leastone community dimension assigned to the first section of the one of thedocuments selected by the second user; conditionally providing thesecond user access to the first section of the one of the documentsselected by the second user, based on the comparison of the second uservalue to the community value for the at least one community dimensionassigned to the first section of the one of the documents selected bythe second user; for the second section of the one of the documentsselected by the second user, comparing the second user value to thecommunity value for the at least one community dimension assigned to thesecond section of the one of the documents selected by the second user;and conditionally providing the second user access to the second sectionof the one of the documents selected by the second user, based on thecomparison of the second user value to the community value for the atleast one community dimension assigned to the second section of the oneof the documents selected by the second user.
 31. The computer programproduct claim 30, wherein the computer program product is implementedusing a plurality of instances of a software program.
 32. The computerprogram product of claim 30, wherein the plurality of content dimensionsand the content dimension values are defined by a system administrator.33. The computer program product of claim 30, further comprising:accepting input from the first user specifying at least one theme; andfiltering the one or more documents identified according to the at leastone theme specified by the first user.
 34. The computer program productof claim 30, wherein the identifying the one or more documents furthercomprises grouping the documents by theme.
 35. The computer programproduct of claim 30, wherein the plurality of the documents make up aface book.